There is a growing area of work in the medical field of providing products and processes for establishing a sterile area of skin, where the possibility of irrigation and drainage into and out of the sterile area is provided. See for example Groves U.S. Pat. No. 3,367,332; Adair U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,882; Stevens U.S. Pat. No. 3,026,874; Svedman U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,441; and other, similar patents.
Particularly, bandages for the treatment of chronic skin ulcers are currently on sale, being made of plastic material which is permeable to moisture vapor, but impermeable to liquid aqueous solutions see for example Hodgson U.S. Reissue Pat. Nos. Re. 3l,886 and Re. 3l,887. Material of this sort from various manufacturers have been used to attempt to permit moist wound healing, either through lavage of the wound by a connecting tube extending through the dressing into a wound site, or by sealing the wound site with a dressing which is liquid impermeable as shown in the article by Vincent Falanga, M.D. et al. entitled A Therapeutic Approach to Venous Ulcers; J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. 14:777-784, (1986). See particularly page 781 of that article. See also the article of Joseph C. Alper, M.D. et al. entitled Moist Wound Healing Under a Vapor Permeable Membrane, J. Am. Acad. Dermatol., Volume 8, Number 3, March, 1983 pages 347-353. Other publications directed to the same subject matter are available as well.
To successfully and efficiently accomplish the various methods of ulcer and wound therapy which involve a plastic film bandage, an effective package assembly for delivering the plastic film bandage into adhered position on the patient, in aseptic condition, is important. As one disadvantage of plastic film bandages which are gas permeable, they tend to be very thin, and not self-supporting. Thus, they wrinkle easily, and generally should be supported by some means to remain flat and unwrinkled until applied on to the desired site of use.
In one available design of plastic film bandage, it is supported by a frame positioned about its periphery, plus a peel-away center portion, to support the bandage in flat configuration until application to its site of use. The opaque, peel-away center portion must be removed to provide the frame structure with an open center so that one may look through the bandage, which is typically at least partially transparent, to view the wound during application thereof to its site of use.
As another problem, virtually every bandage carries peel-away protection sheet means on their adhesive side. In the circumstances in which plastic film bandages are often used, the maintenance of aseptic conditions is very critical. It is important that as the peel-away protection sheet means are removed, there will be no touch contamination of the bandage, particularly its underside.
In accordance with this invention, a package assembly for a plastic film bandage provides improved support and protection of the bandage. Wrinkling of the fragile, non-self-supporting bandage is prevented, and better overall protection is provided to the plastic film bandage until removed from the package. Additionally, manufacturing advantages may be obtained by the invention of this application. Furthermore, an enlarged, grippable extension to the support sheet is provided upon opening, which permits easier application of the bandage to its site of use with less risk of touch contamination.